Summary:
Amesbury is a small Massachusetts district with 5 schools — two elementary, one middle, and two high schools — serving about 1,793 students across grades PK through 12. The Amesbury district overall ranks 245 of 351 districts, at the 30th percentile with 2 stars, but that single number hides enormous variation among its individual schools, which range from the 2nd percentile to the 72nd percentile.
Amesbury High is the academic anchor: in 2025-26 it beat the state in every reported subject, including Science 10 at 51.40% vs the state's 40.50% and Biology EOC at 46.32% vs 37.68%, and it ranks at the 67th percentile with an 85.5% graduation rate. At the opposite end, Amesbury Innovation High School enrolls only 50 students, ranks 345 of 353 (2nd percentile, 0 stars), and reports 0% ELA and Math 10th grade proficiency — though with such a tiny enrollment, percentages can swing on very few students. Amesbury Middle is split by grade: 7th grade ELA (50.00%) and Math (45.83%) beat the state, while 8th grade Math (26.98%) falls well below. Charles C Cashman Elementary is uneven — 3rd grade ELA is strong, 5th grade Math is weak. Shay Elementary serves PK–2, so it has no current MCAS scores, though its last rank was the 72nd percentile in 2022-23.
Two cautions matter for families. First, spending and outcomes do not move together here: the highest-spending school ($23,081 per student) has the lowest proficiency, while a more moderately funded high school has the strongest results — a descriptive pattern only, since spending data are from 2020-21. Second, free/reduced-lunch figures are blank for all five schools, so socioeconomic context is unknown. Graduation rates at both high schools exceed the district's 82.1%.
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